Crop Insurance News

Corn and Soybean Crops Improving

Aug 03, 2015

USDA’s national numbers indicate little to worry about regarding this year’s corn and soybean crops. Progress is about average in the 18 states, with corn silking and pod setting a point or two ahead of average. Twenty-nine percent of the corn is in dough stage, two points behind average.

Looking at condition ratings, corn in the good/excellent categories is unchanged at 70 percent while beans improved by one point to 63 percent; both crops are unchanged in the poor/very poor categories. Nine percent of corn and 11 percent of beans fall in the bottom categories.

In the states served by Farm Credit Services of America and Frontier Farm Credit, Iowa is the garden spot and Kansas is the least favorable, with top-two category ratings in the fifties:

State

Corn Good/Exc.

Corn Poor/VP

Beans Good/Exc.

Beans Poor/VP

Iowa

83%

3%

79%

3%

Kansas

59%

11%

50%

9%

Nebraska

75%

6%

73%

0%

South Dakota

76%

5%

76%

4%

The Climate Prediction Center sees probability of above-average temperatures throughout the Corn Belt and probability of below-average rainfall through the Plains and western Corn Belt in its 8 to 14 day forecast, which could spell a slight deterioration in some of the drier areas in next week’s report. Prospects are better for the entire month of August, with odds favoring cooler and wetter weather from the Southwest into Illinois.

Remember, if you are cutting silage from a crop-insurance-covered grain crop, call your agent before going to the field. Cutting even part of your crop can put your loss payment and/or APH at risk. Keep winter wheat harvest results by section and report them as soon as possible. If you are comingling units in the same bin, follow the guidelines. Finally, make sure you deliver and sell the grain in the same name as the insurance policy.